1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to soft and safe footballs for young children, and more particularly to a talking football of this type, which when caught by a player then emits a selected voice message or crowd roar sounds so that children who play with this ball experience a sense of participating in a professional game being played in a stadium.
2. Status of Prior Art
The game of football is played on a field by two opposing teams, each having eleven men, play being directed toward advancing a football or pigskin, as it is often called, across the opponent's goal line to score a touchdown. The football is formed by a tough, leather outer casing having an elliptical shape enclosing an inflated bladder which is introduced through a long slit in the casing that is closable by lacing.
In the course of play, the players seek to catch the ball and run with it toward the goal line. But if the ball carrier fumbles and loses possession of the ball, an opposing player may recover the ball and run with it in the opposite direction. Blocking and tackling techniques are used to intercept a player carrying the ball. As a consequence, football is one of the most rugged sports and dictates that the players wear protective gear such as helmets, kidney guards, and hip and shoulder braces.
Regulation football is therefore not a game suitable for young children. Yet many of these children are enthusiastic spectators at professional and collegiate football games played in stadiums and take delight in the roar of the crowd when a touchdown is scored and in other exciting incidents which take place in the course of play.
In order to make it possible for young children to play a simplified version of football which requires no protective gear, yet is safe to play, now available for this purpose are soft footballs. These have the same appearance as a regulation football, but in a somewhat smaller scale. In a soft football, instead of a leather outer casing, use is made of a casing formed of soft, flexible plastic material that is easy for a child to grip, and instead of an inflatable bladder, the casing encloses a compressible core of cotton batting or sponge-like, flexible foam plastic material. While a soft football of this type can be manipulated, thrown and kicked like a regulation football, it is altogether innocuous and will inflict no injury when striking a child.
Though children enjoy playing with a soft football in a manner imitating a real game, they do not then experience the excitement of a real game; for what is lacking is the roar of the crowd and the verbal exclamations from those participating in the game, such as "Touchdown," "Great Catch," "Fumble," and "Penalty." The sounds which accompany a real game of football are inseparable from the overall game experience; hence, the absence of these sounds is like watching a football game on TV with the sound turned off.
With a view to enlivening ball play for children, it is known in the prior art to provide balls which emit sounds or produce light effects when the ball is caught by a player. Thus, the 1989 U.K. patent publication GB 2,213,069 discloses a rubber play ball that incorporates a battery-operated sound board and a loudspeaker coupled thereto, as well as an impact sensor that activates the sound board, so that when the ball is caught, the speaker then emits a "bang" sound.
The 1989 Rumsey U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,141, discloses a play ball that produces a tone whose pitch depends on the orientation of the ball. Also disclosing balls which produce different tones are the 1988 Rumsey U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,134, and the 1987 Rumsey U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,260. The 1971 Speeth U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,575, shows a ball that incorporates colored lamps which are turned on upon impact, the lamp activated depending on the point of impact.
Of greatest prior art interest is the 1986 Shishido U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,200. This discloses a sound-emitting ball having an inflated bladder and provided with an impact sensor and an LSI speech system which includes a ROM for digitally storing the voice messages, ONCE, TWICE and so on. These sounds are produced in sequence, depending on how many times the ball is caught.
In practical terms, the drawback of the Shishido arrangement is that the voice message to be generated when the ball is caught is always predictable, for a player knows in advance that having heard ONCE in his previous catch, he will inevitably hear TWICE on his next catch. Hence, the ball quickly loses its novelty and the player's interest wanes, for the ball lacks the element of surprise.
Another drawback of prior art balls which emit sounds is that the impact sensor and the components of the sound storage and playback system are discrete elements which are distributed within the ball, as a consequence of which the ball is relatively difficult to assemble.